Thanks to everybody who's read so far. :D

Also, if anybody has any suggestions for a new title, I'd be glad to hear them. I daresay this story desperately needs a new one. n.n;

Daniel wandered down the hall leading to General Hammond's office. After knocking on the door, he was summoned in to sit down.

"No, sir," said the General to whoever it was that happened to be on the other end of the phone. "Actually, sir, we know very little about him. Any other surviving Tok'ra have yet to contact us with any new information - they're still on the run since their base was infiltrated. As soon as I know, you'll know sir." With that, he replaced the red handset on its receiver.

"I take it you haven't heard anything yet," said Daniel, looking at his fingers which had miraculously become interesting.

Hammond shook his head. "I'm afraid not, son."

"There has to be something we can do."

"Until we have intelligence, we're at a loss to do anything."

Daniel couldn't think of anything to say. That was about an hour's worth of mustered courage used up in a minute and a half. He sighed. The General no doubt had some sort of work to do. Daniel went to leave.

"Dr. Jackson," Hammond called, just before he made it to the exit. "Jacob told me the full story while you were having your post-mission check up. I know you must be feeling somewhat responsible, but..."

"You don't understand. It was my fault. If hadn't pushed that button, we'd know about a formidable enemy. Sarah would still be alive. We might have found Jack, Sam and Teal'c on Revanna. Hell, we could have helped them escape with the symbiote poison, for all I know. It is my fault."

"Dr. Jackson, we sent a MALP to the planet after you returned. The Goa'uld had left. They must have found what they were looking for, or been forced to leave somehow."

"And Jack, Sam and Teal'c could have been responsible for any of that..." He thought for a second. "..for better, or for worse."

Hammond shook his head sympathetically. "I'm sorry, Dr. Jackson. We've alerted all teams to keep an eye out and we'll keep looking, but there's really nothing more we can do."

Daniel felt his heart plummet, and nothing he thought of seemed worthwhile enough to say aloud. He walked out of the room and down the corridor.

The base alarm started blaring.

Incoming traveler.

Daniel felt like somebody had just punctured his ear drum with a leucotome. He turned on his heel and headed to the control room.

"Who is it?" Daniel demanded of Walter Harriman upon his arrival.

The sergeant seemed unconcerned. "It's the Tok'ra, sir," he replied dutifully.

General Hammond jogged down the last couple of stairs. "Open the iris," he ordered.

The iris shrunk back and Jacob Carter stepped through. As per usual, his stride was solid and purposeful - this clearly was no courtesy call. Hammond stepped down to the 'gate room, Daniel at his heels.

"George, we have a serious-"

"Briefing room."

The briefing room felt so empty. It was as if he could call his name and it would bounce off the walls to arrive back at his ears again, as if he stepped too far inside he'd shrink into some sort of massive hole that would magically appear at his feet. It was meant for more than three people. It was meant for a leader, an archaeologist, an astrophysicist, a warrior and a slightly immature...whatever Jack was.

But he missed them already. Even Jack's paper wasps.

Daniel sat in his usual spot - two seats from General Hammond at the head of the briefing room table. Both Jacob and the good General looked at him strangely, but he ignored them.

Jacob took less than a moment to understand what Daniel was doing - and the same amount of time to sympathize. "Earth is in danger. Me and Daniel need to leave immediately."

"What's going on?"

"In the last two days, we tried to hastily infiltrate an operative into Anubis' ranks," explained the Tok'ra. "It didn't go very well, but we've learned that he's put into practice a plan that'll effectively wipe out all life on Earth."

Daniel let his eyelids drop closed. Yet another product of his error. "How?"

"That's the thing." An ironic smile stretched itself across Jacob's face. "We don't know. Our operative managed only to communicate that to us before they were caught."

"So we know something's going to happen, but we don't know what?" Hammond's voice had an edge to it, as if the shock he was probably feeling was channeled into the irritation in his vocal patterns.

"Well, given what Anubis' been doing lately, the first thing I'd be doing is running a very sensitive scan of deep space if I were you," advised Jacob.

Hammond nodded once, before he pushed himself out of his seat and headed down the stairs, barking the necessary orders at the appropriate people.

"How long until any of the results come through, Walter?" asked Daniel as he jumped down the stairs to the control room, Jacob not far behind.

"I'm not sure, sir," replied the technician. "I'm sure I don't need to tell you that space is...big. And doing a detailed scan will be more time consuming."

"Let us know the moment you find anything out of the ordinary," instructed Jacob. "I don't care if looks like space debris or Superman or the Enterprise. If it's not usually there, yell." He turned to leave.

"Uh, sir," said Harriman uncertainly. He stared at the screen. There was a blurred image there. "That wasn't there."

"We found something already?" Daniel leant forward to try to see the object better. "What is it?"

"Can you clear it up a bit, Sergeant?" asked Hammond.

"'Fraid not, sir," said Harriman. "But, with a couple of hours of satellite observation, we could dig up a few more details."

"Do it."

Questions sprung to Daniel's mind. Was the blur on the screen really the harbinger of doom for Earth, or had they picked up something that was just wasting the valuable time that they could be using to keep searching? If it was, what was it designed to do? And more importantly, could they stop it?

Daniel left the control room, the unwelcome wave of helplessness lapping at his heels.

TBC